I took my students to South Africa and we never left the classroom: How to make global connections!

I can't believe the school year has been in full swing for over a month and I haven't had the opportunity to blog yet.  Life has been CRAZY!

First, I have an awesome and amazing student teacher that started the year with me and will end his internship in the late fall.  It has been a wonderful experience mentoring a new teacher and helping him find his style.  What I love most is that he loooooooves to ENGAGE the kids.  It's a win!



So? What cools things have I been doing in my classroom!  I'm still on a roll when it comes to flattening my classroom.  This means that I am trying to push down the walls and connect my amazing kiddos with the big wide world.  On of the things that has been helping me with this is Learn Around the World!


This website and service is amazing! It is run by Brandon Hall and he does all the work for you!  He makes connections with people all throughout the world and then hosts talks with people and shows us footage from their trips.  He does a couple of different types of shows:

The Geo Show Junior for grades K-4



The Geo Show for grades 5-8



Meet a Local for grades K-8



My kiddos and I did a Meet a Local and got to learn all about South Africa from an amazing young woman named Michelle!

Michelle told us all about South African lifestyle, food, animals, and family life.  She spent some time teaching them South African slang and Afrikaans!  My kiddos joined with two second grade classes across the country to ask Michelle questions about South Africa.  At the end of the experience (which was the quickest hour ever!!!) Brandon had the kids play a Kahoot! based on the information given in the talk.
This experience was sooooo easy!  I had to download some webinar software, click on it at the given time, and for the next hour I got to sit back and watch my kids learn, interact, communicate, and think critically!